Not this, not that

I find writing my blog entries, of which there have been few as of late, and these newsletters that I have to keep an eye on my tone. It is easy to talk about some problem or issue and get lost there instead of finding a way out.

Life can often be like that, we allow some issue to build and without realizing it we have become lost there and often find it difficult to work our way out. The funny part of it is that the problem is not actually that large, it is our proximity that makes it seem so massive.

If I take a microscope and focus in on a microbe, I can give it the illusion of being larger than a house and if I allow myself to get lost in that idea, I may actually begin to believe, or live within, the delusion. The same thing has happened to all of us in our forgetting our true natures as eternal Spiritual entities and becoming lost within the illusion that this virtual reality simulator is our true nature.

Be it the day-to-day issues and events in our lives or the study of our actual nature outside the illusion of this creation, getting lost is all fun and games if you will let it. Someone once wrote, “Don’t sweat the small stuff… and it’s all small stuff,” how inspired is that?

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Life is so often directly affected by perspective and perception and when we become aware of it and start to see it for what it actually is, we will find life becoming more and more of an entertainment.

So here is a little homework assignment:

When you find the “reality” of your life becoming overwhelming it is helpful to remember the following:

It is nothing more than an experience in a film I call Life.

I and only I have invested the energy into this so that it may affect me this way.

I can rearrange my perspective to some other emotion/perception if I wish.

People often use this in times of pain, hurt or anger to lessen their sensation that they are feeling in the moment, but I also use it with the more positive experiences in my life. We often cause ourselves pain by being attached to the “good” experiences that, short of chemical manipulation, cannot last forever.

As much as we want to see the less pleasant experiences as powerless, we must also begin to realize that the enjoyable experiences are even more addictive if we do not watch out for them. An addict is running from something unpleasant in the search for a more pleasurable experience.

There is a practice in one schools of yoga, Jnana (knowledge), called “Neti-Neti” in which the idea is to strip away the illusions around one until you are left with what actually is real. Neti actually means “not this” and together the idea is “Not this, not that.”

Often I have people think that this is robbing them of the joys in life by knowing them for the illusory nature that they actually are. Do you see the contradictions here? They are illusions so they are not actually as pleasurable as we believe them to be and once you get into seeing them for what they truly are you can start to experience the true joy that is your REAL nature.

It is like the heroin addict who quits taking the drug, at first they are insanely miserable as they go through the detox phase and once they have finished they start to experience a new existence. There may be things to be dealt with, but once they are handled they are free to enjoy.

Several years ago I realized that all the religions agreed on the idea that we are eternal entities that only inhabit bodies for a while. I began to wonder what it might be to live from that perspective of the Spirit, as I call it, and not from the perspective that is the norm. I can tell you that it changes the world around you and you start to be able to appreciate the joy in all experiences.

It takes persistence and practice to make it consistent, but in time it gets easier and easier and the joys of this state of existence is worth it. Without the addiction to the joys and happiness we think of as real and the avoidance of the rest we dislike we are free to be what we are at our core. That is not only freedom from addiction and a falling away of what you are not, but a discovery of “That thou art.”

Lily Tomlin as Jane Wagner
in “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe”

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Albert Einstein

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.

Sigmund Freud

Few people have the imagination for reality.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Man’s greatest mistake is to think of himself as what a ‘Star Trek’ alien once called; ‘an ugly bag of mostly water.’ The body is only a temporary home. As a gift of God, it should be cared for but not made the center of the universe.

I wanted to create a place where people feel like it’s a ‘home from home’ where you refresh and vitalize and you leave inspired. A place you can come and not be judged. You are accepted for who you are and for what you do. They aren’t enough places like this so this is going to be a place where ideas will thrive and natural talent rules. Whatever it is.

“10 Secrets to the Secret”™ Book Release

Summer 2010

After nearly 30 years of personal practice and teaching others how to make the Law of Attraction (The Secret™) work in their lives, I have realized that there are several places that seem to be the largest stumbling blocks in manifesting the life of their dreams. “10 Secrets to the Secret”™ is a guidebook for the practitioner to help them make the strides in their life they could only dream of before.

While finishing “10 Secrets to the Secret”™ is set for later this summer, if we can get the publishing taken care of early enough, we are hoping to release it at the Club Inspire U event on the 25th of September.

In keeping with the Club Inspire U tradition, all copies sold at the event will donate 20% of the profits to the American Cancer Society.

Written by R. A. Burgener

After finishing the 850 mile trek of self-rediscovery on California's El Camino Real from San Diego to Sonoma, California, Robert continued, via Greyhound, to Portland, Oregon, where he is becoming familiar with the concepts of weather and seasons after 30 years in Los Angeles.